TECH'S CASH FLOWS TO DEMOCRATS — Silicon Valley's biggest names are pumping cash into Democratic coffers, Tony writes this morning. Both LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff contributed $32,400 to the Democratic National Committee — as Democrats and Republicans alike head to California to court donations from the tech set, even as Congress fails to deliver the surveillance, immigration and patent reform bills the tech industry has pushed for. Google's chief legal officer and its director of project management have also pitched in.

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And the fun is just beginning, ahead of this fall's high-stakes midterms. From Tony: "The party has more fundraisers on the radar. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the leading arm for electing House Democrats, plans a $10,000-minimum donation event in July billed as an 'afternoon in Silicon Valley' with Obama. Named atop the invite are three top party members — Leader Nancy Pelosi, DCCC Chairman Rep. Steve Israel (N.Y.) and Rep. Anna Eshoo (Calif.), who’s vying to lead her colleagues on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee next year." Pro's can catch the rest, here: politico.pro/1lIjMMF

FACEBOOK TINKERS WITH USERS' EMOTIONS, SPARKING OUTRAGE — The social network made headlines this weekend — many negative — for manipulating the news feeds of over half a million users, to change the number of positive and negative posts they saw. The adjustments were part of a psychological study into how quickly emotions spread over social networks (The result, for what it's worth: Moods are indeed contagious.) The revelations about Facebook's changes, however, sent shockwaves through its community this weekend — Slate called the study "unethical," ( http://slate.me/1sQ4mdO), while Forbes.com asked whether it is "okay for Facebook to play mind games with us?" ( http://onforb.es/1sQ4RVt). The Atlantic, meanwhile, has an interesting look at just how strict a review process Facebook went through in its effort to publish the study: http://bit.ly/1sQ4sT1. Facebook itself has said its terms of service cover such tweaks — but the researcher who led the study, Adam D.I. Kramer, felt strongly enough to post a public apology to his Facebook page (that's here: http://on.fb.me/1lqMSet). The NYT has more on the study and the reaction here: http://nyti.ms/1sQ53Uz

AEREO HITS PAUSE AFTER SCOTUS DECISION— Aereo suspended its operations Saturday, following last week's Supreme Court decision that the company was violating broadcaster's copyright. The news came via an open letter from CEO Chet Kanojia, who said subscribers could access the service until 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Still, things aren't necessarily over yet — “Our case has been returned to the lower Court. We have decided to pause our operations temporarily as we consult with the court and map out our next steps,” Kanojia wrote. His open letter is here: http://bit.ly/TuuV7X

GOOD MONDAY MORNING and welcome to Morning Tech, where we are giving two thumbs up to the off-the-menu Southeast Side gin cocktail at Beuchert's over in Capitol Hill. Tell us where you find the best summer drinks, and send tips, comments and hello's over to emershon@politico.com and @ eemershon. And catch the rest of the team's contact info after speed read.

JOHNSON AS PTO DIRECTOR? Patent lobbyists and insiders have been telling your MT'er for the last few weeks that Phil Johnson, the senior VP for intellectual property at Johnson and Johnson, is at the top of the list of candidates to fill the long-vacant opening atop the Patent and Trademark Office. Johnson's a familiar face among the traditional patent players — he's president of the IPO, and savvy patent watchers will remember Johnson testified in the Senate last December on behalf of The Coalition for 21st Century Patent Reform. That group is made up of major patent holding companies that were opposed to some of the stronger reforms many in the tech community sought. That background could put him at odds with the pro-reform community if he takes on the Director gig, as GigaOm points out in their latest take on the PTO opening, here: http://bit.ly/1lqKHYw. The White House has yet to comment on Johnson's appointment, but we're tracking.

TODAY: WHEELER TO CHAT NET NEUTRALITY IN ALBUQUERQUE — The FCC Chairman will talk net neutrality, E-Rate, rural broadband access and telehealth in a roundtable discussion with state officials and researchers in New Mexico tonight. Also on tap is a conversation with kids in the state, which is the last in the nation when it comes to Internet connectivity. The chat, which is hosted by the Media Literacy Project and the Digital Justice Coalition, kicks off at 8:30 p.m. EST. It'll be livestreamed here: http://bit.ly/1iO4EgY

RAMIREZ TO TALK PATENTS AND COMPETITION POLICY — The FTC Chairwoman will discuss the role competition agencies can play in shaping the patent system at a London conference today. Her remarks come just as the FTC is in the midst of a study into so-called patent trolls and their effects on competition — an effort that's under closer scrutiny now that efforts to pass patent reform legislation have stalled on the Hill. Also speaking today are the European Commission's competition czar Joaquin Almunia and former FTC Chairman Bill Kovacic.

NAB'S SMITH: 'I'M SMILING' AFTER AEREO RULING — Gordon Smith, who heads the broadcaster group, again praised the Supreme Court for upholding copyright law in its decision in the Aereo case, in a recent episode of C-SPAN's The Communicators. But Smith didn't have anything like that smile on his face when asked whether the FCC had an anti-broadcaster bias: "I'm becoming more suspicious of that narrative all the time," he said. "I just see decision after decision coming down that is trying to complicate life for broadcasters, when there's no one stepping up to do what broadcasters do," he said. He suggested some broadcasters believed the hostility was aimed at convincing them to sell their spectrum in the upcoming incentive auction — which, he said, the FCC shouldn't hurry through. Catch the rest of the episode, in which Smith dishes on FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, NAB's future, and the politicization of the FCC: http://cs.pn/1iO36nl

AND: FOX BETS AEREO DECISION WILL HELP IT BEAT DISH — Fox has been duking it out with Dish over the satellite company's Hopper product, which allows its subscribers to skip commercials and stream content over the Internet — and Fox is betting the Supreme Court's decision against Aereo will help it win that lawsuit. Within hours of Wednesday's verdict, Fox dashed off a letter to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that Dish’s defense of its “Dish Anywhere” system is the same defense Aereo used and the Court struck down. "[Dish] has repeatedly raised the same defenses as Aereo which have now been rejected by the Supreme Court,” wrote attorney Jenner & Block attorney Richard Stone. Oral arguments in that case begin July 7. Catch the letter here: http://bit.ly/1qHD7ht

THIS WEEK IN TECH — Tuesday: Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy holds a field hearing on net neutrality in Vermont. … The American Enterprise Institute hosts an event on copyright and innovation. Wednesday: The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is set to release its report on surveillance conducted under Section 702 of FISA.

ICYMI: A FTC REPORT CARD ON PRIVACY AND SECURITY — The consumer protection agency is out with an update summarizing its track record on privacy and security — which highlights the 130 spam and spyware cases and 40 privacy lawsuits the agency has brought. Other highlights: It's also brought 100 cases related to its Do Not Call list — and earned $129 million in civil penalties, and another $824 million in redress and disgorgement. Catch the report, here: http://1.usa.gov/1iO6lel

PERSONNEL BYTE — Adobe has promoted John Landwehr as its first-ever public sector CTO — a role aimed at improving the digital capabilities of government offices, online, on mobile devices and also in the cloud. Landwehr tells MT he's looking forward to "more discussions with the public sector community" about "[promoting] innovations in digital government." He's been at Adobe for over a dozen years, most recently as a VP of digital government services.

FCC AIMS TO CLOSE CAPTION THE WEB. The Hill reports on Chairman Wheeler's push to increase accessibility online for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community: http://bit.ly/TIkxdc

AEREO COMPETITORS SEE AND SEIZE OPENING. Companies like Simple.TV are hoping to bring former Aereo customers over to their services, the NYT writes: http://nyti.ms/1sQ7sif

AU REVOIR, OPEN INTERNET. The WSJ's L. Gordon Crovitz says France's attempt to block new gTLDs like .wine and .vin are an attempt to exert more control over the Internet — the same kind of control lawmakers fear authoritarian countries might try to exert as it transitions away its oversight: http://on.wsj.com/1pOkNSs

BOARDS FOCUS ANEW ON CYBERSECURITY. Computer hacking is much higher on the corporate agenda than it used to be, the WSJ writes: http://on.wsj.com/1sQ7Ahs

WORLD CUP BREAKS TWITTER RECORD. Almost 389,000 tweets were sent after Chile missed a penalty kick and allowed Brazilians to advance — breaking the mark set during this year's Superbowl, the AP writes: http://apne.ws/1sQ7BC3

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